We got home from our Kootenay adventure last Saturday night and on the drive back I noticed that it’s starting to get dark a lot earlier in the evenings now and my first thought… Time to start night riding! So I fired off a text to my friend, Isabelle, who I knew also had a headlight to arrange a ride. We managed to find a spare light for a third person, JF, and headed out on Tuesday night. The trails here in Cumberland are well marked for night riding, bicycle flashers mark the way and they use different colours to help you figure out which direction you’re going so you don’t get disorientated.
JF had never gone night riding before so we had him ride between the two of us, I led and pointed out hazards while Isabelle followed to give him pointers. Our route took us up a logging road to Broncos, over to Mama Bears, and back down the road to our cars. Isabelle and I didn’t realize how much we had missed our night rides until we were at the peak of Broncos, where we took a quick break to see how JF was feeling (he was stoked!). After seeing JF still had a big smile on his face, we continued on. However, while we were stopped, I noticed my dog was acting strangely. She had come to a complete stop on the trail and from that point on would only run beside me when she normally runs ahead. I didn’t say anything to the other two until we got back to the car, but I suspected we had company of the large four-legged kind on the trail.
We stopped again on the feeder road between Broncos and Mama Bears to make sure JF was still smiling, and he was already thinking of what kind of bike he should buy after he sold his motorcycle. We knew we had him hooked. So we kept going to Mama Bears and back to the cars. Once we were in the parking lot I mentioned to Isabelle what the dog had done on Broncos, only to find out she noticed her dog was acting weird as well, he kept dropping back when he usually stays ahead of her too. That’s when we knew we definitely had company. Whether it was a cougar or a bear, we don’t know but we’re happy we didn’t see it. And it did serve as a reminder to never ride alone at night…
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